Quote:
Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce
Important life lesson learned early, through your "social media experiment". Nobody really gives a fuck about your birthday, unless there's something in it for them, like an excuse to get drunk.
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I agree completely.
Fresh, one of my old roommates used to do this for fun three or four times a year for a couple years. When it comes to birthdays, people are going to remember if someone emphasize them (excluding people that are very good at remembering dates). If you throw a very large, and fun, birthday party every year and constantly talk about it, people will remember your birthday. If the only mention of your birthday to someone is a facebook reminder once a year, no one will remember it.
Also I slightly disagree with the point of your experiment. I don't see how remembering someone's birthday is a sign that you really "know" a person. Birthdays are nothing more than an symbolic day where people can feel special for one day a year. Not saying that it isn't important to people or that you can't make someone feel good about themselves if you remember it, but birthdays are very low on the list of information I need to know before I really feel I "know" a person.
To me, really "knowing" a person means that you know a topic that people feel emotionally attached too. That topic that makes someone's eyes light up when they are explaining it. Whether it is someone's job, school, girl/boyfriend, parents, kids, pet, etc, try to find this topic and remember to bring it up whenever you see this person (unless you see this person a lot, then every once in a while will suffice). This is the real person behind the web page.